Google's Picasa under Linux will use WINE

We've heard rumors recently about Google's suite of programs being moved over to Linux. There's some more information about how that exactly will work, though it relates to only one program. It seems that Google's Picasa program isn't being natively ported to Linux, but rather being made compatible with WINE. As a result, you still have a functioning program. WINE alone can't accomplish this, but the 3rd party Google is working with, CodeWeaver, who produce CrossOver Office, are allowing portions of their product to be used for free to assist Google.

The free Linux Picasa download will include a runtime version of CodeWeavers's modified Wine, so that users can simply download the package from Google and run it on their Linux system. Users will not need to download and install Wine, or to purchase CodeWeavers's commercial version of Wine, CrossOver Office.Some have claimed that the install process will be easy as it is in Windows. The article also mentions that if this endeavor is successful, we can expect more of the same. While it is always nice to have an expanding set of tools for any desktop, software that is written with a native Linux build is much nicer.